Rarely does one have the luck of knowing and actually working with an artist whose career encompasses the operatic greatness of the second half of the 20th century. From productions with Callas and Zefferelli to Pavarotti and Domingo, a list of director Fabrizio Melano’s work would read like the historical annals of opera itself. You wouldn’t know this by having a conversation with the man. He doesn’t boast or name drop, and the artists with whom he has worked know him to be a loyal, loving and calming colleague. I cajoled my gentle friend into giving this interview a few days after he directed the production of Cavallaria Rusticana and Pagliacci which opened the 1999/2000 season of the Metropolitan Opera. With his every word a gem of wisdom, I decided to divide the interview into two parts so as to not miss a single phrase of his sound advice. In this issue, Melano shares his wisdom with a generation of hopefuls who may have occasion to wonder, “Just why am I doing this?”
How do you balance work and family while pursuing or maintaining a career? Is it possible to have both?
It is possible, but it requires a tremendous amount of work, application and decision making. Renata Scotto, for example, brought up two children at the height of her career. She did it by spending a lot of time establishing a suburban home. When she was at home she was very “home with the kids”. And when she was working, she had a little studio apartment in the city, devoted only to work, kind of splitting her life. You don’t have to be dogmatic about it. Everybody is different.
Do you think this is more difficult for women than men?
It is probably more difficult for women, because traditionally their domain is the family. But it’s hardest of all when you are trying to establish a career. If you already have a career, you have a certain amount of financial security. But if you’re just starting and everything is new, including a family, that’s tough. I think that’s why some singers postpone having kids until their careers are started, which is probably wise. If I was counseling a young singer, I’d say stop, get the career started, and then have kids.
What is the best “next step” for young singers after they finish their formal education?
In this country, they probably have to go to a major city. Most have to gravitate to New York, because that’s where the auditions and job opportunities are. I know it’s hard considering the cost of living there, but you can’t just stay in, for instance, Bloomington, and expect that the world will beat a path to your door, because it won’t!
But what do you do once you get to New York?
You have to start going to every audition you can; try to find management, too. None of this is easy, which is why winning a competition or going to a program is good. There is now more out there than when I first started, and more visibility for young singers.
What was it like before?
They just went the rounds, beat on people’s doors and went to theatre and management auditions. A huge influx of singers went to Europe, mainly to Germany, where there was work for them. There were so many more theatres there than here. But that’s drying up a bit. I think a lot of those theaters have less money and are trying to use Germans or at least European community singers. Eastern European singers are willing to work for less money than Americans. But with all that, there are still a lot of good theaters in Germany and many Americans are still there.
What was the difference between the German and the American systems?
The great thing about the German system was you got into a company and stayed there for a certain number of years. Since companies were state-subsidized, you were an employee of the state and entitled to all the benefits that went with that. You had a permanent, year-round job and you were assured of a good number of roles. The flip side to that was you sometimes were given too many roles and you either burned out or learned how to survive.
There are many more opera companies in the States now than when I was starting, maybe not fully developed or with government funding; but there are more jobs, if you can take going from one place to another. Every city has a company of some sort. I’d recommend trying to knock down those smaller doors or going to a young artist program. Lots of companies have them and you get a lot of experience that way.
If you are a singer with things to offer the music, but are still solving problems (technique, language, stage skills, repertoire, etc.) would you continue pursuing a career in the world or stop to “fix” the problems first? Where should one go to perfect the craft and still work in the business, or should one work at all?
If you’re not ready, I think it is better to wait, although you can’t wait forever and you never finish growing your whole life. But you have to have the basic skills in place before you go out there and start selling yourself. There is too much competition.
Have a really solid technique, one you can depend on under almost any circumstances. How many days of the year are you in top physical shape? Maybe three! So you have to have a technique that will see you through anything, a cold, depression, etc. Your language and musical skills should be good. Until you have all those things in place I really don’t think you should get out there at all. It used to be that you were trained a long, long time and really were a finished product by the time you hit the stage. I think you should aim for that.
What are the most important qualities a singer should have in today’s music world? Name them in order of importance.
I look for an identifiable personality and a desire to communicate. Sometimes when I see young singers perform, I wonder, “Why are they into this? Why do they want to sing?” Unless you really have a burning desire, something you want to communicate through the music, I can’t see why you’re doing it! It’s too tough a life. It’s certainly not just to get famous and wear pretty dresses! I don’t think that’s enough.
What do you see when you hear a young singer who isn’t communicating?
I see a sort of blank, someone who is doing it by rote and not with 100 percent of their being. Maybe they see this business as a glamorous career and they think they can get up there and do it without real commitment. Think of Scotto, Callas – the great ones. They had an intense communication of character through music. They took classic characters like Gilda or Lucia and really believed intensely in them as human beings. They expressed it through everything they did – but mostly through their voices.
Do it through the way that you sing! Having the technical ability is a very necessary quality. Then your intention comes across. I think you have to be grounded in a classical technique, meaning the basic “Italian bel canto style.” Classic Italians did know how to sing and they created the most reliable and solid way of singing. You can continue on forever if you really do it well. It requires a time investment to learn to sing that way because it’s more demanding. But once you have it, it’s so solid that it supports everything that you do. It gives you the confidence to go out there and deliver the goods all the time.
Confidence has to exist in and of itself but having a solid technique will help! It doesn’t diminish the expressivity, it enhances it. Callas couldn’t have been more expressive but she also had an extremely good technical knowledge. She was trained as a bel canto singer. Her technique was very solid and it never abandoned her. She was betrayed by her self-confidence and her emotional, mental and physical state. You need all that, too, a centered life. Singing is the toughest thing in the world because everything that happens to you as a human being, physically, intellectually and emotionally goes right to your vocal cords. You have to have something solid in your life otherwise you would go to pieces.
Another thing I must touch on is languages. The more you know a language the more you can communicate a text. Then you’re not doing it by rote, but you really know the meaning, flavor and sound of the words. Learn the languages of your repertoire. For example, if you know you’re going to sing a lot of German repertoire, learn German and how to speak it so it’s real for you. So much does come from the text that I think you should be able to do that well.
Do you think this is really lacking in American singers?
Yes, almost to their credit, because I think they are so fluent at simulating the language. They can learn to pronounce it quite well but don’t actually know the language itself. I know a few singers who won’t even sing in a language they don’t speak. Maybe that’s an extreme position but I kind of applaud that. Jessye [Norman] won’t do it, for instance. I personally don’t work in a language unless I’m fluent because I think it is unfair to the production. I have in my career made a couple of exceptions. But in general, I don’t speak German, so I don’t do German operas. There are operas I would love to direct like Der Rosenkavalier but I won’t do it because it’s like cheating, unless it was done in English. Maybe you couldn’t adhere to that as a singer but I think the more you know the language that you’re singing, the better.
Along with the language, another important thing to learn is the culture of your opera. None of these operas came from a cultural vacuum. They are the highest flower of a culture. The more you know about that culture the better you can communicate it. What a wonderful gift to be given–the opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture. Of course opera is all about human experience and that stays the same but it’s different if it came out of Italy as opposed to France or Germany. Now there are lots of programs abroad where you can address all that. You can go and spend a whole month in Italy, for instance. You can pick up a lot of about the language and its culture that way.
Remember, the work comes out of the love of the art form and its culture. It’s all there for us to love!
In Part II in next month’s issue, Fabrizio Melano discusses his work with famous singers, his ability to stay centered in the tough world of opera and he gives advice to young directors as well as singers.
Fabrizio Melano, one of the leading stage directors on the international opera scene, began his continuing association with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970. Many of his productions have been seen on the Public Broadcasting System’s Live from the Met. Mr. Melano is American, born to an Italian-American mother and an Italian Father. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University in comparative literature with an emphasis in drama.
